


Destroy the middle, it’s a waste of time.

by youngjusticewriter



Series: Fluctuat Nec Mergitur [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, I’ll add more characters as I go, I’m guessing that’s the tag for the fic trope where character b gets turned into a cat, Slow Burn, Smart Haruno Sakura, and character a takes care of them, cat transformation, let female character be upset and it not be played off as humor, this was suppose to be fluffy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 07:43:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19268800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngjusticewriter/pseuds/youngjusticewriter
Summary: “Another one?” Mrs. Takahashi asked, “You’re going to burn yourself out.”(You’re not good enough to keep working; you can’t endure like others do. You’re too young. You’re suppose to just wait around until your teammates get back because those who abandon their teammates are worst than scum.And Sakura wanted to laugh despite the loneliness that had dug itself into her skin, and had made her bleed, so not to be shaken off.They left - they left and now it was just her so why should she wait until they got back? She wasn’t a piece of cake that could be discarded.Sakura had wanted Sasuke and now she wanted to be better in serving her village. Her crush, her teammate, refuting her didn’t stop her chasing after him even though she should have respected his choice. What was their opinions, strangers opinions, compared to that?)Then I burn, were the words Sakura wanted to spill out from her tongue, to spew out as though they were poison she studied and used, and I get up from my ashes.Don’t slam the door, Sakura thought as paws pressed into her hand as though to hold it. It (having to pay for another door) wouldn’t be worth it.





	Destroy the middle, it’s a waste of time.

Sakura woke up at the sound of high heels. The girl Asuna had brought home was stumbling about as she went down the hall. Sakura’s opened her eyes before shutting them immediately and turning around. Paper - her notes - crinkled at the movement. One of Sakura’s feet fell onto the open page of a textbook before she pulled it up and into her stomach. With a groan Sakura slowly opened her eyes again and was greeted with the sight of her alarm clock (it was four twenty-five, Sakura noted) and the lights to her apartment being on but Sakura already knew that. She had known that she had fallen asleep with her lights on since she first opened her eyes to look at the alarm. 

Sakura brought her arm up to run a hand through her scalp and her eyes fell on then bright red sleeve. The desire to groan again was there but Sakura didn’t, instead she stretched her legs out before she got up. Her notes crinkled at the movement and later that day Sakura would care more about it but right now Sakura had had only a few hours of sleep and needed to get back to bed sooner rather then later. She had assigned herself an early morning shift today since Lady Tsunade had a council meeting this morning and wouldn’t be able to train with Sakura first thing. 

Sakura got out of her bed only to lean over it and start collecting her notes on cell division. After gathering the notes together on top on one and another Sakura closed her text book and grabbed it. There was no desk in the apartment despite how much time had passed since Sakura had moved here. If she didn’t want to study on her bed Sakura could do so at the library or worse come to worse at the hospital break room. Sakura put down the papers and book on an unopened box before she went back to her bed. The covers - worn pink things that wasn’t kept and used from a desire to save her money - were quick to come off from the bed they were tucked into with a soft tug from Sakura. Next Sakura grabbed one of her pillows, and the kunai hidden under it, on top of the first cover. It was after Sakura had made her bed for the night that she went to go turn off the lights. Sakura had less than two hours of sleep before she needed to get ready and she was planning to get the best night of sleep she could. 

It, coming to find more comfort (not in the sense of actually comfort but the comfort that came with reputation) sleeping on the ground, was one of those things Sakura had come to learn during her career, because it had become a career to Sakura not just service much to the displeasure of her family, as a ninja. There were somethings Sakura had suspected and or even day dreamed would come about from being a ninja (some of those things she was okay with, others she had resisted during her first year of being a genin because of certain notions she had in her head that had never been set straight until Lady Tsunade has taken her under tutelage) but this was not one of them. It was one of the things Sakura had come to learn just like keeping a weapon near her while she was sleeping brought her not only safety but comfort as though it was a doll her father had bought for her during one of his trading travels. The comparison made Sakura want to snort but then she thought on it more instead of, you know, trying to clear her head to fall asleep easier. 

The metal of kunai was just like the eyes of any of the dolls Sakura had once owned: dark and gleaming as long as the shinobi who owned the weapon took time to clean and care for the weapon. Both the weapon and doll were smooth. So smooth you had to be careful in your dealings with it, Sakura had come to learn early on in her youth, because it was easy to cut yourself with it - whether it be from the tip of the kunai or the shards of the doll if you dropped it. 

Sakura opened her mouth to yawn and didn’t bother to lift a hand to cover her mouth since it was just her in the apartment. She would have to think on it more later. She was tired from staying up late to study how chakra could effect eukaryotic cells and their reproduction and had less then two hours of rest before she needed to get ready for her shift at the hospital. 

Thankfully, sleep found Sakura soon after. Unfortunately, it was not allowed to keep her for long. Sakura woke up to the repetitive and grating blare of her alarm soon after she had fallen asleep. Her fringes twitched but Sakura didn’t turn off the alarm yet. It, one of the things Sakura had come to learn, was so very easy to break an alarm. You didn’t even have to be trying to do it and honestly Sakura wanted to break it so she could continue to keep her eyes closed and stay in the warmth of the bed she made on the floor. 

With a groan which made Inner tell Sakura she was speaking like an Uchiha, Sakura pushed herself up with one arm so she could turn off the wailing alarm. Then she just staying up only by the support of her arm and staring at her little apartment. There was a bit of light from the little window above the kitchen sink and one window a few feet away from Sakura. She had moved into an one room apartment after the chunin exams because at the time this was all she could afford with how Naruto had often screwed up d rank missions they had been assigned to and their payment would get cut just because the boy was too busy trying to one up Sasuke to pay attention and actually do the job correctly. Now, Sakura stayed here because...well looking for another place and moving there seemed like it would take too much time and Sakura did have much time. Her life often felt like a street entertainer’s act: her priorities and just things in general that Sakura wanted to give time to were balls she had to juggle and Sakura wasn’t good enough to keep them all. When some balls fell Sakura left them there discarded to focus on her other priorities until shit it was almost too late to pick them. Sakura was left scrambling to fulfill whatever she had neglected to do only for something else to fall to the wayside. 

It was a cruel and vicious cycle that left Sakura tired and unable to shake the exhaustion off even if she had time for a good night of rest. (It was hard, Sakura had once read from a book her father had owned, to shake something off that was already under the skin.) 

But Sakura just had to survive for a year and a few months longer. 

It’s the thought of her goal that got Sakura out of her bed and into her bathroom so she could wash off her face and put her hair up. It was only when Sakura looked into the mirror that she remembered she had fallen asleep in her clothes she wore throughout the day. She walked out of the bathroom to quickly change into a fresh and an unwrinkled outfit, then she threw her dirty clothes in an almost overfilling basket, before Sakura then finally went to get ready for the morning. She’s fast about brushing out her hair and putting it in a bun. Washing her face takes a few minutes. The water that came out from the sink was slow to warm up and her face wash needed to be left on for a just a few minutes before being gently washed off.

When she went to grab her bag and notes Sakura’s eyes flickered to her alarm clock. She was doing good on time which meant she could run into the tea shop down the corner and order a cup. (The hospital’s coffee was worst than its food which before working there Sakura wouldn’t have been able to imagine something being worst than the food. It was just one of those things Sakura has come to learn.) After gently packing up her notes in the messenger bag Sakura grabbed an apple on the way out; it would be quick to eat, something she could do while she made her way to the tea shop, and honestly Sakura didn’t feel hungry enough to eat a full meal. The only thing she wanted down her throat honestly was a hot cup of oolong tea but Sakura knew she needed to eat. 

There wasn’t many people out and about in the streets. It wasn’t the early hour  
that kept the majority of everyone indoors but the dreary weather that only lifted up just a bit earlier and who knew how long it would stay only overcasted. Sakura was quick as she made her way around the corner. She didn’t need chakra to be applied to her feet to be as quick as she was going; working under Lady Tsunade had taught Sakura not only to be dodge but to be fast. Despite hurriedly making her way, she still saw in corner of her green eye a soaked blob of grey fur. It was animal for sure - the size of a cat and a few breeds of dogs - and it was going to ran again soon. Her body stopped before Sakura even made up her mind. 

It was d rank missions worth of experience that made Sakura slow and quiet in her approach of the animal. It was indeed a cat but it was a thin one and Sakura didn’t mean it was thin compared Tora. The cat was just thin in general and with it having no collar on it’s neck perhaps it was just one of the many strays in the village. Yet its eyes, mix matched things, were sharp. Cats were intelligent but there was something in those black and brown eyes that made Sakura have a feeling in her stomach, a strand of suspicion in her gut. 

“Hello,” Sakura greeted to the possible summons. She slipped her untouched apple in her messenger bag as she waited to see if the soaked cat was indeed a summon. There as no response given besides the cat closing it’s brown eye. There was a clap of of thunder somewhere close but neither Sakura or the cat jumped in alarm at the noise.

Sakura’s teeth dug into her bottom lip as she stared down at the cat who had closed only one eye and had yet to open it. It wasn’t like she didn’t already need to do her laundry... 

Without a word, Sakura opened up her bag and pulled out her rain jacket. A little bit of warmth spread through her toes as Sakura directed her chakra for speed. The cat stood no chance getting away but besides an ugly look (how the cat managed to convey it with just one dark eye open would have shocked anyone else) being directed at her for being bundled up in a pink rain jacket it didn’t claw at Sakura in an attempt to escape. 

Sakura directed just a little more chakra to her feet before turning around to the direction of her apartment. The tea house didn’t allow pets so Sakura would have to drop the cat off at her apartment. She could ask Asuna if her brother still had that crate he had bought after so many missions of being tasked with catching Tora. (The crate was to make sure the cat didn’t escape during the travel back to the summer home that Madam Shijimi owned; honestly when Sakura had heard of Riku’s plan she had felt like an idiot for not having thought of it herself with how many times Tora had escaped team seven after being caught.) 

When Sakura stopped running since she was before the doors of her apartment building the cat in her arms didn’t retch but it didn’t subtract the claws that were digging into her poor rain jacket either. So much for just washing it with the rest of her pilled up laundry.... 

“Is that a cat, Sakura?” It was the old lady who lived in the last apartment from the hall Sakura’s lived in who croaked out those words. She was wearing a wet hat, rain jacket, and the grocery bags in her hand were also wet which confirmed what Sakura suspected. “You know when I said you should bring a boy here that wasn’t what I meant.” 

Sakura put on a smile on her face that didn’t reach her green eyes. The cat, who unlike her didn’t have a reason to be hissy, narrowed it’s single dark eye in judgment at the lady. The judgey look didn’t go anywhere far though considering the soaked cat was bundled up in a pink rain jacket. 

“I don’t even know if it’s a boy, Mrs. Takahashi,” Sakura said instead of saying what she wanted: saying whoever Sakura started dating didn’t need to brought over for her approval. Mrs. Takahashi wasn’t her grandmother - even if the lady acted like it despite Sakura’s friendliness with Asuma - and even Sakura’s own grandmother had no rule over Sakura’s love life or rather lack of Sakura’s love life. There were only so many hours in the day and so very many hours Sakura needed to fill to become a medic nin. 

Sakura slipped one hand from under the cat to reach into her bag to fish out the keys for her apartment. She would go over and knock at Asuma’s door later when Mrs.Takahashi was unloading her groceries or just doing anything in her apartment instead of making small chats with Sakura out in the hall. Least she wasn’t discussing the weather with Sakura; there was a bright side to a situation if you looked really, really hard sometimes was something Sakura had learnt years while on team seven. Despite how much Naruto had screwed over d rank missions to one up Sasuke, Sasuke refusing to listen to her whether it be about her feelings for him or her offering advice on the task, and Kakashi having read porn leaving the three of them to sort it out their fights there was a part of Sakura that missed that short time where team seven had been together. 

“Well you should find out if it’s a boy,” Mrs. Takahashi advised in a tone that adults often used to say ‘I’m older than you and you should listen because you don’t have my experience.’ “They’re more likely to spry then girls no matter how innocent he looks.” 

Innocent? Unlocking her door was forgone in favor of Sakura’s eyes falling on the cat. Gone was the judgmental look it had been directing at the old lady with just one eye. Now it just watched with... well to Sakura it was more of look of supposed boredom then innocence. 

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Thank you but I have to get going. I have a shift at the hospital in just a little bit,” Sakura informed with a small, tight smile before opening the door to her apartment. She and the cat weren’t in it for thirty seconds before Mrs.Takahashi opened her mouth. 

“Another one?” Mrs. Takahashi asked, not getting the hint. The concern in her tone would have appreciated if Sakura actually wanted her company, if Sakura wanted to be babied and held back. “You’re going to burn yourself out.” 

(You’re not good enough to keep working; you can’t endure like others do. You’re too young. You’re suppose to just wait around until your teammates get back because those who abandon their teammates are worst than scum. 

And Sakura wanted to laugh despite the loneliness that had itself dug into her skin, and had made her bleed, so not to be shaken off. 

They left - they left and now it was just her so why should she wait until they got back. She wasn’t a piece of cake that could be discarded. 

Sakura had wanted Sasuke and now she wanted to be better in serving her village. Her crush, her teammate, refuting her didn’t stop her chasing after him even though she should have respected his choice. What was their opinions, strangers opinions, compared to that?) 

Then I burn, were the words Sakura wanted to spill out from her tongue, to spew out as though they were poison she studied and used, and I get up from my ashes. 

Don’t slam the door, Sakura thought as paws pressed into her hand as though to hold it. It (having to pay for another door) wouldn’t be worth it. 

“Thank you for your concern but I can handle it,” was all Sakura told Mrs. Takahashi before closing the door behind her. It closed with a gentle click that gave no hint to how Sakura felt. 

A good ninja did not show their emotions after all.

**Author's Note:**

> This an early birthday gift to myself and also an outlet for my frustration for the next few days. 
> 
> We’ll be seeing (much to Sakura’s frustration at first) more cat!Kakashi shenanigans next chapter. Sorry, that he really didn’t get to do much this chapter besides throwing one eyed judgemental looks while bundled up in a pink jacket. 
> 
> In other news, I am working on the next chapter of (Don’t) Lay Me to Sleep (I decided to write the next chapter of my PJ time travel fic before I worked on it - I’ve been looking forward to the Medusa arc for a long time). Here’s a sample of it: Naruto’s whiskered face darkened at the questions he was asked. Sasuke. That was the name Sakura had heard earlier today. It was the boy all those girls had been talking about and flower shopping for.
> 
> ...So what? A relative of this Sasuke somehow had something to do with Naruto having dreams like hers? Dreams about the bodies that littered a compound along with dreams about missions their soulmates went on considering that Crow’s mask had been drawn by Naruto. So their soulmates knew each other then. Maybe Naruto could Sakura about who was the other member of the masked team!


End file.
